{"id":8777,"date":"2017-12-14T10:34:06","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T15:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=8777"},"modified":"2017-12-14T10:36:22","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T15:36:22","slug":"as-session-ends-ndp-keeps-focus-on-health-care-and-hydro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/14\/as-session-ends-ndp-keeps-focus-on-health-care-and-hydro\/","title":{"rendered":"As session ends, NDP keeps focus on health care and hydro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dec 14, 2017 @ 10:34<\/b><\/p>\n

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For NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, the 2017 legislative session was all about\u00a0families struggling to cope in overcrowded hospitals, and families struggling to pay their hydro bills \u2013 and at her final press conference for the session, she made clear that\u00a0families that can look to her and\u00a0the NDP\u00a0for a plan that offers hope in 2018.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWeek after week, we hear from patients and families suffering because of the hospital overcrowding crisis,\u201d said Horwath. \u201cJust yesterday, I saw what overcrowding at Sick Kids in Toronto looks like. It\u2019s heartbreaking, and Kathleen Wynne\u00a0just\u00a0keeps\u00a0letting patients down.\u00a0Ontarians deserve a premier that offers real hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For over a year\u00a0and a half, Horwath has\u00a0been releasing\u00a0overcrowding data for hospitals around the province\u00a0\u2013\u00a0data often\u00a0obtained via Freedom of Information\u00a0requests.<\/p>\n

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On May 16, 2016, Horwath released documents that revealed Ontario hospitals had been forced to operate at over 100 per cent capacity for years on end. Since then, she has been to Sault Ste. Marie, Brantford, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Sudbury, Kingston, Hamilton, Brampton, throughout the GTA and to other communities to release Freedom of Information documents, raise alarm bells about overcrowding, talk to families about the impact the gridlock has had on them, and to demand that Kathleen Wynne stop pushing hospitals into crisis.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Wynne and Conservative Leader Patrick Brown had disappointing priorities this year, she said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cKathleen Wynne\u00a0is planning to force pre-pay\u00a0hydro meters\u00a0on parents who can barely afford to feed their kids, while stuffing\u00a0partisan\u00a0ads intohydro bills in an attempt to convince people it\u2019s not so bad,” she said. “She was focused on herself and her party all year, obviously not Ontario people.”<\/p>\n

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Horwath said she\u2019s disappointed that the Liberals and Conservatives blocked changes she tried to make this year \u2013 moves like banning pre-pay\u00a0hydro meters, putting Hydro One back into public hands, and launching a find-and-fix public inquiry into the problems in seniors long-term care. She also said she\u2019s proud of the commitments she\u2019s laid out, heading towards an election.<\/p>\n

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Horwath and the NDP have announced plans for Canada\u2019s first universal pharmacare plan; a hydro plan that will offer permanent relief on high hydro bills by bringing Hydro One back into public ownership; new labour laws that will give people a better work-life balance; a \u2018find-and-fix\u2019 public inquiry into Ontario long-term care system, and a commitment to proper hospital funding that matches or exceeds inflation, population growth and the unique needs of each community in order to end chronic overcrowding.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhile the Conservatives and Liberals are fighting with each other with law suits and backing each other up on Wynne\u2019s $40 billion hydro borrowing scheme, families are thinking about what comes next for Ontario. Who will share their priorities and focus on what really matters?\u201d\u00a0said Horwath.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s time for a premier that\u2019s focused on the priorities of Ontario families, and is ready to take action to make life easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dec 14, 2017 @ 10:34 For NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, the 2017 legislative session was all about\u00a0families struggling to cope in overcrowded hospitals, and families struggling to pay their hydro bills \u2013 and at her final press conference for the session, she made clear that\u00a0families that can look to her and\u00a0the NDP\u00a0for a plan that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[1086],"class_list":["post-8777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-provincial","tag-health-and-hydro"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-30 03:43:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8778,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8777\/revisions\/8778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}